School Psychology Internship

Goals, Objectives, and Competencies

Goal 1 – To increase intern skill in engaging in the professional practice of school psychology at the individual, group, and organizational levels in schools and related settings.

Objective 1.1 – To increase intern skill in psychological assessment.

Competency 1.1 – Intern formulates and conducts psychological assessments that are technically adequate, accurate, relevant, and useful for decision making and planning purposes.

Objective 1.2 – To increase intern skill in intervention and prevention.

Competency 1.2 – Intern selects, develops, implements, and evaluates interventions that are relevant to the client, problem, context, and that are empirically supported.

Objective 1.3 – To increase intern skill in consultation.

Competency 1.3 – Intern provides useful guidance, advice, and technical assistance to teachers, parents, administrators, and other stakeholders regarding client needs and problems, and methods of addressing them.

Objective 1.4 – To increase intern skill in program planning and evaluation.

Competency 1.4 – Intern assesses client and organizational needs for the purpose of developing new programs, and uses appropriate methods of evaluating the effectiveness of implementation of those programs.

Goal 2 – To increase intern skill in the use of scientific methods of selecting, developing, and evaluating interventions for clients.

Objective 2.1 – To increase intern skill in the use of scientific evidence to select and develop interventions.

Competency 2.1 – Intern uses scientific evidence of efficacy and effectiveness in selection and development of interventions for clients.

Objective 2.2 – To increase intern skill in the evaluation of client progress linked to intervention delivery.

Competency 2.2 – Intern engages in regular monitoring of client progress to evaluate intervention outcomes.

Goal 3 – To increase intern skill in applying systems thinking to professional practice at the individual, group, and organizational level.

Objective 3.1 – To increase intern skill in the evaluation of the impact of systems on clients.

Competency 3.1 – Intern engages in use of methods of assessment and evaluation of problems that provide information on the impact of multiple systems on client functioning.

Objective 3.2 – To increase intern skill in the development of interventions and implementation strategies that reflect systems understanding.

Competency 3.2 – Intern selects/develops interventions and implementation strategies that address the impact of systems variables at multiple levels.

Goal 4 – To increase intern skill in working with individuals and groups from diverse racial, cultural, ethnic, linguistic, socio-economic, and gender-related backgrounds.

Objective 4.1 – To increase intern skill in identification of client diversity characteristics that may influence client behavior.

Competency 4.1 – Intern incorporates the relevance of culture, ethnicity, and other dimensions of diversity in conceptualization of client problems.

Objective 4.2 – To increase intern skill in the process of adaptation of interventions to address client diversity.

Competency 4.2 – Intern addresses the diverse characteristics of clients in adaptation of and delivery of interventions.

Goal 5 – To increase intern skill in communication and collaborative problem solving.

Objective 5.1 – To increase intern skill in working effectively in the context of a multidisciplinary team.

Competency 5.1 – Intern communicates effectively, offering cogent and practical ideas and solutions, in meetings and interactions with other service providers.

Goal 6 – To increase intern understanding of ethical professional practice.

Objective 6.1 – To increase intern skill in developing practice decisions based on ethical guidelines, professional standards, and laws and regulations related to school psychology.

Competency 6.1 – Intern makes practice decisions that are consistent with ethical guidelines, professional standards, and laws and regulations related to school psychology.